[khc]

My normally happy go lucky son is really having some issues this Halloween season. He has suddenly gotten scared of many things lately. Normally he's a good sleeper but one night was waking up every hour or so scared of things in his crib. We finally had to remove all stuffed animals from his crib, he is very insistent on this. Another new development is that he hates my daughter's doll (I must admit that I hate this doll too---creepy---but my daughter loves it). Some of the Halloween decorations really scare him. Can't really avoid this because everywhere you go, there are decorations.

Yesterday, we took both kids on a kid friendly haunted hayride during daylight hours. He cried the whole time and only calmed down when we went pumpkin picking. Shopping in WalMart for costumes scared him when we walked down the aisle because there were many scary masks.

Right now, his language skills are exploding. He understands a ton and is starting to communicate really well. Says things like "me scared." Have you all had happen to your 2 year olds? Last year he was fine with everything and was fearless. Now, he need lots of reassurances and we are having to be careful with scary things. My 4 1/2 year old daughter is not phased by any of this scary stuff.